Finally, I am one week away from Christmas vacation! The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas break could not be moving any slower. I am sure this is due to the fact that I want it to go by extremely fast, so therefore it is not. I am so fortunate though that for the next 7 daysI have so much to do and get done that I hopefully can stay busy and help the time fly by.
To start it off, tomorrow I have a swim meet in Marshalltown. This isn't any old swim meet that doesn't matter, but rather I am on 2 relays that are trying to qualify for nationals. I am really excited for the day, I get to breakout my fast suits and swim my heart out. We tried for the Q time a few weeks ago and were .80 seconds off in the medley relay and 1.2 seconds off in the freestyle relay. I am certain that this disappointment is fueling us to the finish line this time.
On Sunday I am going to spend some time giving back. The swim team at my high school has "adopted a family" for the Christmas and holiday season. I will blog more about it later, but in short we are going to go shopping with donations that we have collected and put together a nice Christmas for them because they don't have the capability to provide themselves with this. Then on Wednesday, we are going to deliver it to them and watch them open their presents! I think its going to be a really humbling experience and show all of us what the Christmas season is really all about.
Once I get through four more days of school (yuck) the fun begins. My family is going on a Caribbean cruise and we leave the day we get out of school. That night we will drive to Chicago and we fly to New Orleans the next morning. Christmas Eve we dock the boat and will enjoy a week in the Caribbean until we arrive back on New Year's Eve. I think we are going to have a great time even though we have to miss out on some great Christmas traditions. I will be sure to blog about some of our adventures that I'm sure we will be having!
I think the next week is going to be great and filled with fun and exciting experiences. I believe there really is a truth to the saying "It's the best time of year!"
Friday, December 16, 2011
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Sustitute Teachers...and the Hassle Involved
If anyone has ever thought that they had a bad day, I challenge them to take a step into the shoes of a middle school or high school substitute teacher. I can't say that I have personal experience with this, but from years of observation I really can't imagine too many more jobs that could possibly be as horrible as this one.
First of all, students are always going to take advantage of their substitute teacher. They think that they can mess around and not do their work, all at the same time as making the substitute's life a living hell. One thing that a substitute teacher probably experiences everyday is the switch-seats-name game. There is nothing that they can do when students decide to switch seats with their friends and pretend they are someone else, of course giggling the whole time. This has got to drive the teacher crazy, but for their sake they better just let it go.
Second, students are always going to try and bend the rules. If the teacher specifies to work alone, no one is going to do that until a big fuss is made and the substitute is practically to tears. Once people start to work alone, that lasts for about 5 minutes and the rest of the class the poor substitute is trying to get people to quiet down.
Then there is all of the miscellaneous things as well. Kids will go to the bathroom and not come back for 25 minutes, sometimes being escorted by a principal when they return, and this is even if they do come back. They will be texting and messing around the whole time and probably line up at the door 10 minutes before class is over. Most of the time students have no respect for substitute teachers so the fill-in teachers for the day barely try to discipline the obnoxious teenagers.
At one point I would get so annoyed when kids would just skip class once they discovered that Mr. Green or Mrs. Smith was gone. But now I have come to realize that those are probably the kids that will torture the substitute so I could care less if they showed up. It ends up being less of a hassle for everyone!
First of all, students are always going to take advantage of their substitute teacher. They think that they can mess around and not do their work, all at the same time as making the substitute's life a living hell. One thing that a substitute teacher probably experiences everyday is the switch-seats-name game. There is nothing that they can do when students decide to switch seats with their friends and pretend they are someone else, of course giggling the whole time. This has got to drive the teacher crazy, but for their sake they better just let it go.
Second, students are always going to try and bend the rules. If the teacher specifies to work alone, no one is going to do that until a big fuss is made and the substitute is practically to tears. Once people start to work alone, that lasts for about 5 minutes and the rest of the class the poor substitute is trying to get people to quiet down.
Then there is all of the miscellaneous things as well. Kids will go to the bathroom and not come back for 25 minutes, sometimes being escorted by a principal when they return, and this is even if they do come back. They will be texting and messing around the whole time and probably line up at the door 10 minutes before class is over. Most of the time students have no respect for substitute teachers so the fill-in teachers for the day barely try to discipline the obnoxious teenagers.
At one point I would get so annoyed when kids would just skip class once they discovered that Mr. Green or Mrs. Smith was gone. But now I have come to realize that those are probably the kids that will torture the substitute so I could care less if they showed up. It ends up being less of a hassle for everyone!
Sunday, December 11, 2011
The Difficulty of Sunday Nights
As I am sitting here on a Sunday night, I want to make the statement that in general, Sunday nights are not all that much fun. The feelings of dread for the upcoming week and sadness that your time of sleeping in are over is really quite sad. After staying up late for two nights, sleeping in, hanging out with friends or watching football, its hard to wind down from a weekend of fun.
Many things about an unfortunate Sunday night can probably be avoided. As far as I am aware, a large majority of high schoolers tend to save most of their studying and homework for this time. I would probably be put in this category the majority of the time. Getting stressed about having to rush through an assignment is not the best way to start off your week, but most of us still tend to have this habit. It is so hard to get yourself to do homework throughout the weekend!
In my opinion, one of the most difficult things about a Sunday night is thinking about getting up early the next five days and thinking about having to deal with homework and studying throughout the week. Once I get to school on a Monday morning it's better, but the workload never ends and the sleepiness just piles up. Sometimes I seriously don't think teachers realize that we have other classes, jobs and activities!
Now I could be looking at the positive side of Sunday nights but there just doesn't seem to be enough of it. Looking back at your weekend, whether it was full of family, friends, work or parties is fun but it doesn't exactly put you in a good mood. In order to get myself into a state of happiness on a Sunday night I have to think about the upcoming weekend and what I am going to do, for the most part it works. Staying positive is key!
Many things about an unfortunate Sunday night can probably be avoided. As far as I am aware, a large majority of high schoolers tend to save most of their studying and homework for this time. I would probably be put in this category the majority of the time. Getting stressed about having to rush through an assignment is not the best way to start off your week, but most of us still tend to have this habit. It is so hard to get yourself to do homework throughout the weekend!
In my opinion, one of the most difficult things about a Sunday night is thinking about getting up early the next five days and thinking about having to deal with homework and studying throughout the week. Once I get to school on a Monday morning it's better, but the workload never ends and the sleepiness just piles up. Sometimes I seriously don't think teachers realize that we have other classes, jobs and activities!
Now I could be looking at the positive side of Sunday nights but there just doesn't seem to be enough of it. Looking back at your weekend, whether it was full of family, friends, work or parties is fun but it doesn't exactly put you in a good mood. In order to get myself into a state of happiness on a Sunday night I have to think about the upcoming weekend and what I am going to do, for the most part it works. Staying positive is key!
Friday, December 9, 2011
The Purple Sweater Controversy
The purple sweater controversy as I like to call it has been the talk of the school this week. Being the last school picture day that the junior class will ever get to experience, some students decided to "jazz it up a bit." In what everyone thought would be a fun, hilarious and most importantly harmless "game/prank," the passing of the purple sweater soon became controversy that people were not going to let go.
The background behind this story is as follows. A large group of guys decided it would be fun to pass a funny-looking-turtleneck-purple sweater to each other throughout the day. Once they got their picture taken with this crazy piece of clothing, they passed it on to a friend an so on . The humor of this will then be remembered when the yearbooks are distributed. Throughout the junior class section, 50 guys would be wearing a funny-looking-turtleneck-purple sweater.
As far as I am told, the students got away with this through first and second hour. Once third hour was reached, the photographers seemed to have a problem with the passing of the purple sweater. I witnessed a kid going to the office to try and get backup from the administration. My question was "Why do the photographers care?" One thought would be that, parents would probably be less likely to buy the picture if their child looked that ridiculous. But that cannot be the case because the photos must be payed for ahead of time.
Much to everyone's surprise, the administration at school had an issue with the passing of the purple sweater as well. I think everyone just wanted to know why anyone cared. It is just a funny, harmless prank that people will remember forever when looking back at their yearbook photo.
Understandably, a few students got a bit frustrated with the photographers and secretaries when they told them to take the sweater off. Yes, no student should talk back to an adult, but the whole situation doesn't make any sense. The only thing that I could come up with, after asking my dad (employee of the school), is that the administration didn't want to get some sort of tradition started because sooner or later it will get out of hand.
Whatever the case may be, at least many students made a statement today by wearing purple!
The background behind this story is as follows. A large group of guys decided it would be fun to pass a funny-looking-turtleneck-purple sweater to each other throughout the day. Once they got their picture taken with this crazy piece of clothing, they passed it on to a friend an so on . The humor of this will then be remembered when the yearbooks are distributed. Throughout the junior class section, 50 guys would be wearing a funny-looking-turtleneck-purple sweater.
As far as I am told, the students got away with this through first and second hour. Once third hour was reached, the photographers seemed to have a problem with the passing of the purple sweater. I witnessed a kid going to the office to try and get backup from the administration. My question was "Why do the photographers care?" One thought would be that, parents would probably be less likely to buy the picture if their child looked that ridiculous. But that cannot be the case because the photos must be payed for ahead of time.
Much to everyone's surprise, the administration at school had an issue with the passing of the purple sweater as well. I think everyone just wanted to know why anyone cared. It is just a funny, harmless prank that people will remember forever when looking back at their yearbook photo.
Understandably, a few students got a bit frustrated with the photographers and secretaries when they told them to take the sweater off. Yes, no student should talk back to an adult, but the whole situation doesn't make any sense. The only thing that I could come up with, after asking my dad (employee of the school), is that the administration didn't want to get some sort of tradition started because sooner or later it will get out of hand.
Whatever the case may be, at least many students made a statement today by wearing purple!
Friday, December 2, 2011
Black Friday...The Analysis
The day after Thanksgiving. Twenty years ago it was probably nothing more than a casual, relaxing day to spend time with family and eat leftover turkey. Over the course of the last few decades, this day has become a phenomenon for thousands of avid shoppers.
I am convinced that the day after Thanksgiving, called Black Friday, has seriously become a sport for many people. One common tradition on Thanksgiving is to look in the ads and newspaper for sales and coupons that start extremely early the next morning. Many people probably don't even want to buy the product but because it's on sale, they will be happy to spend their money. This of course is the purpose of these ads from places such as Target, Best Buy and Sears. It seems to be a competition between stores of who can come up with the best Black Friday deals.
I remember a few years ago that the stores would open their doors around 4 or 5 in the morning with people standing in line to insure access to the best deals. I thought this was ridiculous at the time even though the idea of waking up super early to go shopping sounded kind of fun. Now the early in the morning twist is on its way out. Stories are opening at midnight some even at 10 pm, such as Walmart on Thanksgiving night. This defeats the whole purpose of waking up early to go shopping! Now all your doing is staying up really late to go shopping. In my opinion, I don't think that's quite as exciting and different.
Black Friday isn't just great for crazy shoppers and the businesses themselves, but the media also benefits. There are always new deals to announce and unheard of actions taking place on this day, in which the media is first to report. This year I heard everything from camping out for 24 hours in a parking lot, to pepper spray attacks, reported gun shots and stealing. That is just uncalled for and out of hand, people use your brain!
I have to say I have never ventured out in the middle of the night to partake in this annual craze. I am sure that most people who do have some great stories though. Last week when I went to the mall (at 1 pm) about 10 ladies had on matching Black Friday t-shirts. This seemed a bit over the top to me but that's something fun and not stupid to do! For the most part I do think that Black Friday is for the better, it gets people together, having fun and getting ready for Christmas!
I am convinced that the day after Thanksgiving, called Black Friday, has seriously become a sport for many people. One common tradition on Thanksgiving is to look in the ads and newspaper for sales and coupons that start extremely early the next morning. Many people probably don't even want to buy the product but because it's on sale, they will be happy to spend their money. This of course is the purpose of these ads from places such as Target, Best Buy and Sears. It seems to be a competition between stores of who can come up with the best Black Friday deals.
I remember a few years ago that the stores would open their doors around 4 or 5 in the morning with people standing in line to insure access to the best deals. I thought this was ridiculous at the time even though the idea of waking up super early to go shopping sounded kind of fun. Now the early in the morning twist is on its way out. Stories are opening at midnight some even at 10 pm, such as Walmart on Thanksgiving night. This defeats the whole purpose of waking up early to go shopping! Now all your doing is staying up really late to go shopping. In my opinion, I don't think that's quite as exciting and different.
Black Friday isn't just great for crazy shoppers and the businesses themselves, but the media also benefits. There are always new deals to announce and unheard of actions taking place on this day, in which the media is first to report. This year I heard everything from camping out for 24 hours in a parking lot, to pepper spray attacks, reported gun shots and stealing. That is just uncalled for and out of hand, people use your brain!
I have to say I have never ventured out in the middle of the night to partake in this annual craze. I am sure that most people who do have some great stories though. Last week when I went to the mall (at 1 pm) about 10 ladies had on matching Black Friday t-shirts. This seemed a bit over the top to me but that's something fun and not stupid to do! For the most part I do think that Black Friday is for the better, it gets people together, having fun and getting ready for Christmas!
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